Incredible India! (1 / 2)

One guy who saw my first post about the Indian roads commented that travelling with your own vehicle in this country is so unpleasant that it ruins the “Incredible India” idea (India’s advertising motto). But I think he was wrong. Because on the Indian roads we found some of the most unimaginable things so far!

At the beginning I was surprised to see many unfinished truck chassis moving around. Usually, such frame is delivered by a truck manufacturer to a custom coach builder to create a special purpose vehicle. Why such high demand for special purpose vehicles in India?

Well, I found the answer when I took a closer look at the trucks. They all look home – built. In fact, I found such a factory, where frames are finished. It was basically a carpenter’s shop, since most of the material used for the cabin was wood. So every truck is unique, and also cheaper than factory finished. Not much has changed since Daimler built the first car, 120 years ago!

Not only trucks and buses are built like this, also trailers and three wheel vehicles. Some of these creations remind me about Mad Max!

While creativity is important, safety and maintenance are always left behind. As a result, structural failures are common: bent chassis, broken axles, wheels falling off in motion and even semi trailers falling off the tractor! There is not a single country we’ve seen so far having nearly as many accidents happening as India does.

Passengers and cargo are always loaded in excess of normal occupancy or in some innovative way.

And my favorite is this armored vehicle belonging to Calcutta counter terrorism unit. Those aluminum wheels go well with the camouflage paint. Wondering if the plating is also made of light alloy 🙂